What a wonderful week in Ward-Hobbs! Thank you to all the parents who volunteered at our hugely successful European Festival. Face painting is always a huge hit, but it is really special when Shannon lends her creative touch to the process. Thank you Cathie Walker for adding your artistic touch.
Crepes with jam....mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
Thank you to Patrick Gilman's family for these beautiful, hand blown eggs. WOW! It really made the Russian table exciting, colorful and fun!
We were so grateful for a few sunny spring days to enjoy the greening outdoors and nurture a few of our sunny daffodils.
See you next week....
Looking ahead:
May 2nd is EARTH DAY. Please join us at CGMS to spruce up the gardens.
May 14th is the Art Festival, mark your calendars.

Due to a short week, conferences and even inclimate weather, we are postponing our blog entry for a week.
We are sorry for any inconvenience.
Angelina, Shannon and Belle

Back from Spring Break March 31- April 10

We are catching up from the fray of writing conferences and regret missing the posting last week. Here is a retrospective of some of our activities over the last 2 weeks...



Spring heralds the return of birds, bees, flowers and...Patrick! We are so thrilled to have our far traveling sailor back among the fold. We missed you, Patrick! Welcome back!

Milo gives Natalie a helping hand with the Rubber Band board.The warm weather makes our playground time so enjoyable. These friends are coloring the bench with chalk, noticing the effects of texture, color and watching the chalk turn to dust as they rub it on the wood.We have been learning about the parts of the orchestra. We divided our instruments into sections and practiced following hand signals for "ready", "play" and "stop". It is alot of fun! Here is the jingle bell section.And the sandpaper block and drum sections...Kathryn Ross led an interesting and popular investigation of bird nesting materials. Children brought in so many different things like lint, dog hair, yarn, fabric bits and horse tail hair.We put a mix of materials into several mesh bags that we hung in trees around the playground. We are watching to see if the birds discover and use them.With the exceptional weather on Friday, April 3rd, we couldn't resist a trip to the park. On our walks everyone is doing well staying with their partners, stopping at streets and alleys and playing safely. We have a great time at the park and it is a fun change of pace. We are also busy in the classroom counting, learning shape names and sounding out words. After the break we are getting back in the swing and enjoying doing big work.We got a treat last Friday when the Extended Primary children gave a performance of songs they have been learning over the year. The Toddlers joined us on the steps and we were quite entertained. They sang Slippery Fish, The More We Get Together, and a rousing number that named all 50 states. It was awesome!See you next week! Coming up next week, Parent/Teacher conferences will be held during the day on Thursday, April 16th and Friday, April 17th. Written conferences were mailed out this past Friday so you will have a a chance to read them and see if you have any questions. We look forward to visiting with you!

Also on Thursday, April 23rd from 1-2:15 p.m. we will have a European Festival in the backyard. There will be stations set up to sample food or do a craft from England, Spain, France and Russia. We will take turns going through with small groups of children. If you would like to volunteer to help out, let us know at the gate. We will have more specific volunteer information available very soon!

As always, thank you for your support! We'll see you soon.

Angelina, Belle and Shannon

Week of March 9-13

It has been a busy week in Ward Hobbs PM! We were blessed with readers this week, almost every day... We value parent and caregiver involvement so much. It is really special for the children when people they know and love come in to share in their day.
As Belle was off to Boulder to take her Language exams, we were lucky to have Beverly Jackson in to sub. Her special brand of humor and Montessori expertise are a real treat for the children to experience. Thanks Beverly!

Friday we had a visit from Hannah's mom, Erin, and nanny, Kelly, who came fully equipped to help us do a sand art project. The children loved it! Filling bottles with layers of colored sand was a delight for the eye and hand alike. That's all folks! See you next week!

Coming up: Spring Break is around the corner, March 23-27. We will have a work day Monday, March 30th and will welcome the children back to school on Tuesday, March 31st.

Hi Patrick! We miss you!

Week of Mar. 2- Mar. 6

A week in the life...

Some people like to say that a picture is worth a thousand words and I don't know about the exact numerical equivalence, but here are a few photos to provide a glimpse into our week.

Whether we are:

dropping off...

coming in...

working with friends...

or working alone...

tidying up...

or having snack...

and reading books...

We're always having fun!

Thanks for another great week!!!
Looking Ahead:
Spring is springing up all over the place and it will be upon us soon enough. Mark your calendars, because the CGMS official Spring Break begins on March 21st and runs through March 30th.

There is also an informal parent meeting scheduled for Thursday, March 12th at 6:30 pm.

Announcements:
Thanks to Carla Ooms for helping out, to Grandma Dawn for reading on Friday and to all of you who contributed recipes for our upcoming cookbook.
IT ISN'T TOO LATE TO CONTRIBUTE!! Just let one of us know or talk to Lisen Kintzele at the gate.
Also we have ordered the latest class book, if you are interested in getting one let me know.

week 2/23-2/27

Another great week in WHPM, with a buzzing satisfaction of concentration, conversation and engaging activities.
Here, a student is working with the teen beads and carefully coloring in a complimentary worksheet.These two are pictured amidst an animated conversation. This tea making activity, a two person work, is very popular. While the tea steeps, an egg timer measures a set amount of time, during which we are encouraged to make polite conversation. There is a poise and gracefulness present in both the dialog and careful preparation of the tea.
This beautiful watercolor world map, took several days to complete and the finished peace reflects so much hard work and dedication.
Occasionally, we are blessed with an older sibling who visits and reads to the students. The resulting throng is often in a rapture of attention.
Working side by side on different exercises, these two students became so focused on the task at hand that conversation wasn't necessary.
There were a number of innovative language activities going on...And math activities, like this fraction work that evolved in response to a students thorough interest in food preparation,There are also some emergent projects evolving in the studio, here a student is translating a drawing into a fabric representation,and another child works on a similar task.It is always such an amazing blessing and opportunity to work with and learn from our students. Thank you for sharing them with us. We look forward to another fun-filled week, see you Monday.